At the Gym
by cmr2014
Summary: A chance encounter turns into a bit of reconcilation. AU. SkyeWard.


DISCLAIMER: Agents of SHIELD and its characters are owned by Marvel Entertainment.

 **At the Gym**

Everyone thought it was so easy to be Quake. Somebody messes with you, you wave your hand a bit and the earth swallows them whole.

Sure, it was nice to see kids playing superhero and arguing over who got to be Quake. Much better than being villainized as a bank robber and terrorist.

But people just had no idea of what it was _actually_ like being Quake. What it was like feeling, at every moment, the vibration of everything. Every. Single. Thing.

It was noise for the body. White noise that Daisy just had to live with, be at peace with, like a city-dweller at home in the cacophony of traffic, pedestrians, and sirens.

One thing that helped her was getting into a state of blank mind – a "zen zone", as she had heard it called. And nothing put her into that state like hitting the gym.

Some SHIELD agents liked to use what was on-site. Daisy actually found it put her more at peace to get out among regular people; there just was something good about not being confined, able to move freely. It was a reminder of her ideal, that every Inhuman could have this level of normalcy. And a reminder that everyone mattered, not just people like her.

She flashed her gym card up front. It IDed her as Skye; it was kind of nice to wear her old name as her public guise, sort of like holding a childhood blanket as an adult. It carried a sentimentality she never felt when it was the only name she had. Being able to take it out and put it away at will somehow gave her an attachment to it now.

A stop in the locker room to change into matching black workout pants and top, then off to the weights. While others liked the weight machines, Daisy preferred free weights. Her body felt more of a connection moving weights independently than it did using a cable as a medium, all there was to it. She could _feel_ the changes of each molecule with the movement through space, felt every shift in balance with her own shifts in stance and form.

"So I'm at the gym and look who I run into."

The concentration in her concentration curls was interrupted by a familiar voice. For half a heartbeat, she tensed.

 _He's changed_ , she reminded herself. _Just like you're not who you were, he's not that guy anymore. He's been through a lot of therapy. The Director himself said he was free to go, to "reacclimate". Don't let the past ruin the present._

She looked up. Past black gym shoes and white crew socks, past long red gym shorts, past a gray sleeveless. There it was, that same face. The one that had drawn her in. That had hidden so much…

"Hey," she acknowledged him, hoping the tension didn't show. Looked around at the other gymgoers. "Um…what should I call you?"

There was just a hint of a smile as he pulled his gym card and tossed it to her. She blinked at first, then quirked an eyebrow. "Grant Ward? You don't think that's a little obvious?"

"It's me," he replied, his voice…it sounded honest to her, but then, it had sounded honest before. The hint of humor he wore passed as he spoke, a different expression taking its place, one she couldn't remember having ever seen – it was guarded, and that she was beyond used to with Ward, but there were a few small twitches. As if some new part of him were trying to make itself known. "Whatever's passed before, whatever I've done, I have to be who I am. And that means not hiding. If people want to hunt me, if you – if the world wants to hate me…I have to accept that."

Before she could process even the quick correction he'd made, let alone what he might mean by what he said or how she felt about it, he continued, "And you? What face do you present to the world when it's not looking?"

She showed him her own gym card.

"Skye."

She had every feature of every expression she'd ever seen on Ward since first meeting him memorized, burned in from reliving his devastating betrayal every night for a long time of nights. Even shooting him hadn't helped the way she thought it would. It was the entire team he had betrayed…but it felt so damn personal, aimed entirely at her. It had taken a long damn time to not relive everything nightly, to put him in the past and leave him there.

So she, better than anybody, could see those minute cracks in his armor. It was a good bet nobody other than Coulson or May would be able to pick them out. Certainly, they were too small for anybody here who glanced at him to see.

But there it was. A catch in his breath that made the way he said her old name almost a sigh for anyone who knew how walled up his emotions were. His eyes closed a heartbeat too long to be called a blink.

What was he thinking? What was he feeling?

She couldn't do this.

Snatched her gym card from him, deftly returning his in the same movement. Her voice was all business as she straightened up on the bench and picked up the dumbbell she was using. "That's enough break. I should get back to it."

"Sure."

The look in his eyes…

No. She'd fallen for it once before. Not again.

Even if Coulson was right, even if Ward had worked hard in therapy and had taken those important first tentative steps and just needed someone to give him a chance so he could continue on that redemptive journey, it would have to be someone else. Even if he were a different man, the face was the same.

 _A different man…_

No. She wouldn't. She was going to finish her tricep extensions, knock out her shoulder prehab workout, do her core and back exercises, finish with a rowing session, and be done. Just let him get help from someone else.

Except a long time ago, the one who gave him help had been Garrett.

 _Damn it, Coulson. If I had enough hate to shoot him, why couldn't you just have had enough hate to kill him? Why did you have to bring him back?_

She didn't want to have to deal with this.

Except what you do or don't want doesn't matter. It's what you do that counts. By the time she was finished with her extensions, she had made up her mind.

Ward was trying out something new called a Bear workout, each rep a round of exercises. In smooth, flowing movements with barely a pause between each separate exercise, he power-cleaned a barbell to shoulder height, front-squatted, push-pressed the barbell overhead and brought it down behind his head onto his shoulders, back-squatted, military-pressed the barbell off his shoulders and back to the front, setting it down on the ground. Seven rounds made a set, for five sets total. Kept to a moderate weight, it was supposed to make for a good conditioner.

It seemed ok to him. He'd had far more intense training in his life, but part of why he had decided to take up a more civilian way of keeping in shape was to not hearken back to those days. He'd been going to use the little gym in the safehouse Coulson had him in, which had come to feel as much like home in his time back from Maveth as anywhere ever had. But Coulson had suggested he was ready to start being around people, that it would help him connect more, and part of redemption was connecting. Had suggested this gym, in fact. But he couldn't have known Skye was here.

Could he?

Why Coulson hadn't killed him on that desolate planet, Ward didn't know. That level of forgiveness…it was something he wanted to prove himself worthy of, though he didn't understand it himself. It didn't fit with anything he'd ever learned about how the world works.

Ever.

The barbell directly at overhead position, Ward's eyes closed and he involuntarily jerked where Skye had shot him.

"Need a spotter?"

It was a good thing both that the weight was relatively light and that it was an Olympic barbell with bumper plates, because the weight tore itself from his startled grasp and crashed to the floor, bouncing hard. He was lucky it hadn't tried to take one or both arms down with it.

Gymgoers turned their heads to see what had happened. Fortunately, this wasn't a gym for sissies, otherwise someone could have sounded an "excessive noise" alarm and gotten both him and Skye thrown out.

A horrified gasp came from Skye as she hurried around to his front to try to fix her inadvertent damage. "God, I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine," Ward assured her. "I got it."

"Let me at least get this." She bent to remove his towel from being smushed under bumper plates.

"No, really –" Ward bent to beat her to the punch, and they had as close to a literal meeting of the minds as people can get, their heads knocking together. They each clumsily fell on their butts, more out of surprise than hurt.

A muscle-bound gymrat muttered something about "fricking amateurs" as he passed by, rudely withholding any offer of assistance, completely ignorant that either "amateur" could drop him with one finger. Maybe two, on a bad day.

Ward couldn't help but grin and laugh at the silliness of the situation, two dangerous people who must right now seem more like two of the three stooges. It was something Skye wasn't used to, a pleasant sound, and it helped loosen her discomfort.

"I got so used to May, I forgot how much training with you could bruise," she commented.

Was that the wrong thing to say? A shadow flickered across his face. Just a momentary thing, then the grin was back and he laughed again. Held out a hand. She took it and they pulled each other up.

"Still think it's a good idea to spot me?"

Skye looked at the barbell, back at him apologetically. "If you feel up to the risk."

"You in front of me is bound to be safer than you behind me, right? Let's see what happens."

Ward didn't need a spotter, but he was relieved Skye wasn't as tense as she'd been earlier. Maybe there was hope she wouldn't hate him forever.

"I confess," Skye suddenly blurted as he was bent over in the starting position. Ward glanced up. "I don't actually know how to spot someone."

"Is that all?" His grin returned. "It's easy. You're just going to give the bar a little boost up when I lift. Here, put your hands under it. That's right. Now when I lift, you're going to just lightly lift it with me. On three, ready? One, two – three." He drove up with his legs, power-cleaning the weight up to shoulder height. "Easy, right? Now you just watch me, make sure I don't have any trouble until I'm ready to set it back down. Oh, and make sure not to surprise me."

Skye's smile was embarrassed but good-natured. _It's good that I can smile around him. Unexpected, but…good._

He went through it gracefully, no hitches this time. She helped him lower the bar and raise it again each round of exercises, until the set was finished.

"Good spotting, Skye. You're a natural," he encouraged. "Up for one more set?"

"Sure."

They went through another set, working smoothly as a unit for the start and end positions. It went well. Well enough for her to feel pretty at ease helping him put the weight plates back on their pegs, the barbell back on its rack.

Neither was sure of what should happen next when they were done. Ward wanted to prove to her he was different, but he didn't want to push it. Even if she never wanted anything to do with him again, it was her choice to make and something he had to accept.

Skye still remembered everything that had come before. A little while together at the gym wasn't going to change that.

"Well," he said. "Guess I should let you finish your workout."

Skye chose to blame Coulson. It wasn't that, even though she couldn't get herself to let go of what he'd done, she had still enjoyed being his spotter, watching him do that crazy circuit. It was Coulson and his ridiculous forgiveness, damn him. She could just picture the get-on-with-it motions he would make at her if he were here.

She tapped Ward's arm as he was walking away, causing him to turn back. "How would you like to help me out in return?"

His eyebrows raised. "Depends. I'm not going to shoot myself."

"Would you settle for making sure I don't cheat on my core routine?"

He looked over at the open area she was gesturing to. "Ok. Do I tell the teacher if I catch you cheating?"

"No, just give me a light smack or something. Come on."

She set up her yoga mat and began doing crunches. Ward sat next to her, watching.

"Boring," he commented after maybe half a minute.

"You're there to keep me honest, not to whine."

"I have a better idea. Here."

Skye wasn't expecting to be pulled into sitting up with him at her feet. "What are you –"

"Trust me." That same shadow crossed Ward's face again. "Sorry. I didn't mean –"

"Ward." He looked up at her. For maybe the first time this entire encounter, they truly held eyes, his guard truly down. "What's done is done, no changing it. Let's just let the bad memories be bad memories and focus on what we're doing, ok?"

He nodded. "All right, then. So here's what we're going to do."

What he had her do was get a medicine ball from an equipment rack by the wall, then lock legs with his. Holding the ball, he sat up at the same time as her and passed her the ball, lowering back to the mat. They sat up again and she passed it back. The ball continued to be passed back and forth as they did sit-ups.

"It feels like we're kids on the playground," Skye said on one pass.

"Maybe so. But it's not boring." Ward leaned back from a fake swipe at his head. "Admit it, you're having fun."

"Never," she said with a smile.

When they were done, Skye mopped sweat from her face with her towel. "That _was_ something I've never done before. I wonder if you've got anything else up your sleeveless?"

"I've got something else I remember from back when. If you feel up to the risk."

"Hey, I said that as a caution, not as a challenge!"

"It's a challenge now."

"Accepted, then," she told him. "Bring it, pretty boy!"

Skye wound up eating her words, because Ward indeed brought it. They were twined together again, but this time their legs were locked in such a way that their lower legs were basically in the small of the other's back. Even with Ward's muscular frame taking up a lot of the slack for her, after the joint sit-ups her core still burned with the effort of keeping her smaller frame locked tight.

Before, when Ward had dropped the weights, the stares had been only momentary, checking to see if anyone was hurt; they now were much longer and more intensely curious, trying to figure out exactly what it was they were looking at. A two-person pretzel? Twins conjoined at the legs? Just so weird to see two people basically raising each other off the ground as they were, only their arms touching the hardwood floor, Skye's yoga mat in the middle of their combined frame as Ward counted and they both did push-ups in unison.

"You're a real sadomasochist," Skye ground out. "You've got to be to think of this."

"Sixteen," Ward grunted. "You were down to ride, remember? Seventeen. 'Oh, please help me make my core workout not boring,'" he said in a falsetto. "Eighteen."

"I never said – I wanted it not boring. I said – I wanted you – to keep me honest." Skye was barely able to say even that much. She felt like if this kept up much longer, her body was going to burn up from the inside, all the acid pumping in her veins right now.

"Nineteen. Does it seem like there's a way to cheat at this?" Ward's speech was far too even and measured for it to be anything but a ruse to hide that he, too, was feeling the strain. "Twenty. At ease."

Skye was anything but at ease; she gratefully collapsed to the floor, disentangling and rolling on her back, panting. "My body hates you right now."

Ward's own chest was heaving, but he still managed to laugh. "Just think of how you'll feel tomorrow."

She groaned at the thought of how sore she would feel in the morning.

A little more ribbing and a lot more resting took place while they lay immobile for several minutes, moving only for small sips of water as other people walked around them. But eventually Ward got to his feet and pulled her up. "Let's roll up the mat and get you to a cooldown. You've earned it."

At what point he had become her coach here, Skye wasn't sure. But a cooldown sounded real good right now.

Except he hadn't meant ice packs, she realized too late, as she found herself pedaling away on a stationary bike.

At least she had a nice slow pace.

Until Ward reached over and dialed it up to match his. He chuckled when she glared at him and raised her middle finger.

"Aw, she thinks I'm number one," he said. "Why don't you put on some music? It helps." He pulled out his own earbuds.

The sight of them overwhelmed her workout fatigue. Laughter burbled up from within.

Ward looked over, busy cycling. "What?"

She paused in her pedaling, head cradled in her hands in laughter. "Oh, my God – I just realized something."

"Yeah?"

"My favorite part about Grant Ward working out is his stupid headphones!"

"These headphones are sleek," he corrected her, but Skye was too busy still laughing.

"You would have the fricking wireless ones that look stupid!" The bike she was using shook, she was laughing so hard.

Ward pointed to the buds. "Can't hear you."

Skye leaned over and gave him a light punch on the shoulder, still shaking her head in laughter, and resumed cycling.

For the next twenty minutes, she kept teasing him about what a dork he looked like wearing those wireless buds. And even though he pretended he couldn't hear her, she saw him not even try to fight a smile every time she did.

After their cooldown cycle session and her ribbing ended, they just sat for a few moments, breathing hard and letting the sweat drip. Then they climbed off and courteously wiped down the bike seats, handles, and consoles.

Ward reached for anything that would extend this time with her. "Would you…uh, would you like to get some water?"

"Only if you promise not to break out those ridiculous headphones again."

"Ok, see, now I have to."

"I swear to God, I'm going to record you wearing those things and post it to Instagram, I kid you not."

They jousted some more as they went to the drink bar.

While they waited for their waters, Skye turned to him. "Ward?"

"Yeah?"

"What I said before, about bad memories being bad memories. They are, but…I mean…well, there's nothing that says we can't make new ones," she offered.

Ward grinned at her. She actually was getting to quite like that look on him.

"I'd like that," he told her as their waters arrived.

Touched his bottle to hers in a toast. "Here's to new memories for us."


End file.
